Alex Garland: “Ex_Machina is what I call an ideas film. Like A Clockwork Orange”

A sci-fi film to (re)watch this evening on Arte.

Generational novelist (The beach) and essential screenwriter (28 days later, Sunshine, Never let me go, Dredd…), English Alex Garlandwent behind the camera in 2015 with Ex_Machinaa stylish SF camera where a tight-fisted billionaire techie moves around (Oscar Isaac), a bewildered coder (Domhnall Gleeson) and one of the sexiest female robots in history (Alicia Vikander). Already cult? Our review is worth reading here.

Since then, the director has signed Annihilationbroadcast on Netflix and also critically acclaimed, Mena post-#MeToo malin, as well as Dev, a series once again focusing on new technologies. While Arte programs Ex_Machina in the second part of the evening (meeting at 10:50 p.m., after The Last Walkby Tim Robbins), we are republishing our interview with the director.

Alex Garland, creator of Devs: “The scientific world is full of strange and poetic ideas”

Alex, was it your ambition to move on to directing after fifteen years as a screenwriter?
Absolutely not. Working in the film industry made me understand one thing: that the importance given to directors in comments on cinema is totally disproportionate. A film is the result of a collaborative process. And then I remain convinced that the centerpiece of the building is the scenario. “What is this film about? » “Why do the characters act in this or that way? » The answers to these questions are ALWAYS in the script. I consider myself a filmmaker. I write, but with images. With this in mind, hire a director other than me to direct Ex_Machina would have been a waste of time and money.

Exactly… On a “small” film like Ex_Machinais it the budget that determines the plot or the plot that determines the budget?
I place creative freedom above all else. And money is the determining factor of this freedom. On sunshine (Danny Boyle, 2007), we had too much money, which led to a lot of disagreements between us. Realizing Ex_Machina I myself was making savings that I could then reinvest elsewhere. In special effects for example. Thus, I bought my freedom. And when, sometimes, I have an idea that requires a lot of money, well… I make sure to forget it in a second! Ah ah!

Ex_Machina is part of this vogue for films on artificial intelligence…
Yes, it’s a traffic jam, isn’t it? Chappie, The New Heroes, Avengers 2, Transcendencenew Terminator, Her…It’s in the zeitgeist. But in my opinion, these films are not directly linked to the theme of artificial intelligence, for the simple reason that there has been no major scientific progress in the field for three years. They reflect something else: our fear of new technologies. Of these social networks that control our lives. We don’t know anything about them. But they know everything about us…

It is with this idea in mind that you designed Nathan, the character ofOscar Isaac in the movie ? A rock star entrepreneur, somewhere between Mark Zuckerberg And Steve Jobs ?
I didn’t have anyone specific in mind. In reality, I didn’t want Nathan to be the caricature of the CEO of one of these big “tech companies”, but rather for him to embody the company itself. That’s why he goes to such lengths to look cool. He’s the bearded hipster we’d love to be friends with. These boxes all work like that, on your desire to be part of the gang, to join the circle of initiates. This is the world Apple is selling. Now, if you think about it for two seconds, you realize that you might be wise to be wary of this bearded hipster…

Oscar Isaac is the big attraction of the film. His look – the shaved head, the glasses, the beard – does that come from him or from you?
A bit of both. I wanted the beard. The glasses were his idea. When I tell you that cinema is a collaborative medium…

The film is part of a very fruitful sci-fi tradition that goes from Asimov to Mamoru Oshii Passing by Blade Runner. But if I tell you that I especially thought about Roman Polansky in front of the film…
I am going very well. Polanski does something that I love, particularly in Rosemary’s Baby : you watch the film thinking that the characters are going into paranoid spins, when no, not at all. What you imagine is happening is actually happening, right there, before your eyes. I applied exactly the same principle in Ex_Machina…

It’s one of the rare sci-fi films that you come away with saying: “Wow, I love the dance scene”…
Ah ah, yes, maybe! I was looking for a really original way to show one guy bullying another guy. And suddenly I realized that what I needed was a big disco beat…

Ex_Machina is minimalist but incredibly dense. A little film full as an egg. We don’t see many like that anymore…
This is what I call an “ideas film”. An idea movie. You leave the room wanting to talk about the subject, not the plot. The absolute model in the genre is Clockwork Orange. There are also all these sci-fi films from the 60s and 70s that I loved as a kid: Planet of the Apes, Green Sun, Crystal Age… They were not afraid to talk about the political or social issues of the time. On the contrary: they seized it head on. I loved it. Where have the “idea movies” gone?
Interview Frédéric Foubert

Trailer ofEx_Machina by Alex Garland with Oscar Isaac, Alicia Vikander and Domhnall Gleeson:

Men: Alex Garland creates a brilliant horror and feminist fable (review)